Thanks to the Fitch Benson family for their help in the Lutheran Center building a Chicken Coop... now the chickens are not on our roof and for building a storage closet! 

Kristen and Amanda in Antigua Guatemala in July 2006 

Another House Guest… uninvited

When we came back from our most recent visit to the US in May, we were greeted by a small house guest. You see the day we left, the rainy season began in Guatemala—and we left our house vacant for a week and a half… Enough time for our little guest to visit all the rooms and leave surprises on all our clothing and in ALL our cupboards… but the mouse did not open any of the food.
We did not notice right away that we had a guest but that first night back I found mouse poop in our dish drainer and later on Horacio saw it run down the hallway… so we called Beatriz to come and help. The next day Diego and Karen Sofia were supposed to come to stay with us and if they knew about the other houseguest… they would not have set foot in our house!
Beatriz, Marco Andre and Horacio together cornered the mouse in the kitchen with their brooms… but it would not come out of the sink cabinet to get squashed. We had the brilliant idea of bringing in the garden hose in order to flush it out with water.
Now before you think this was really foolish of us, please note that we have ceramic tile floor.
As water and dust bunnies were coming out from behind the kitchen cabinet, all we achieved was giving the mouse a bath!

House Guests

From May 28 to July 11, Horacio and I have our nephews and one of our nieces living with us… first Karen’s two oldest while she was visiting Shepherd of the Hills in Canon City, CO. Then we added Marco Andre when his mom left on June 11 to bring four Guatemalan youth to the ELCA National Youth Gathering for one month. Karen has come back so now (June 22) so now we just have Marco Andre.
Jumping into being parents with 3 kids—one 12, another 8 and the third 7—is like jumping into the deep end of a pool. We see them everyday and are responsible to take them to Karate, etc… but to make sure they do all their homework, eat 3 meals, bathe daily, brush their teeth, change clothes… etc. Well it requires an inordinate amount of time and patience.
Karen Sofia has at least two hours of homework each day—at 7 years old! Much of which requires parental help. She did draw her family for one assignment and drew Horacio, and myself, along with Diego and Valeria (her other sister) as her family.
Horacio made Karen Sofia and Diego finish all the homework they had omitted since the beginning of the school year in January… they complained, but when they got their by-monthly grades, they finished higher than all year.
Karen Sofia loves helping in the kitchen… which adds more time but also allows time to share—a good trade off.
While we hope to have children of our own… one at a time will be just find. It is wonderful to see that my husband will be a wonderful father as well.

June 2006—Singing to the Lord

Last Sunday worship began and as the singing started… well lets just say I was glad I was in the front row… bless their hearts, they cannot sing. At times they are so bad I am surprised that people stay inside instead of running out. It’s a wonder really… they cannot sing yet they love singing. 4 guitars strum—each to their own beat, one played by a man who is drinking again and is playing to the wall. Several copies of the songs have been passed out to those who can read—words but the music is not written. Each sing to their own melody yet I imagine that to our Lord this cacophony is like the song of angels—sung from the heart. This churches song has brought in many new voices in the recent months. The flats and sharps and rhythm changes don’t seem to bother—perhaps because this is the way life here is after all!